FLASH buzz and rumor

Today brings news and rumor on 'The Flash' movie. Cristos Gage promises a 'Paradox' trailer for SDCC. The usual 'Watchmen' blurbs pop up. Schwartz not directing 'X-Men: First Class'. Toriyama comments on 'Dragonball'. This is the story of three little girls who went to the police academy. This is your Comics2Film 9.2.11!

Gage Talks Sorbo, PARADOX, Trailer

Late last year Arcana comics announced the development of TV and comics writer Cristos Gage's 'Paradox' as a feature film starring former 'Hercules' Kevin Sorbo. MTV Splash Page caught up with Gage at NYCC to discuss the status of the movie.

Gage said he wasn't sold on the casting of Sorbo as hardboailed homicide detective Sean Nault, the leading man in his noir-meets-sorcery tale. He was mostly familiar with Sorbo's famous TV persona.

"But when we first saw the stills of him, his hair is cut normal length, he’s wearing a trench coat, a fedora, he’s got that great face with the square jaw. He looks fantastic — like a ’40s film-noir guy," Gage told MTV.

Gage said the movie is in post-production in Vancouver. A trailer should be ready for Comic Con International in San Diego.

WATCHMEN and more Watchmen

IGN has a run down of the casting process for 'Watchmen' with comments from Zack Snyder and the various actors about their roles.

Here's a fun quote from Matthew Goode who plays Ozymandias in the film:

"I think Zack spoke to Tom Cruise about Dr M, but he wanted to do Ozzy, oddly, megalomaniac that he is. Possibly. Don't quote me on that! And definitely Jude Law for sure, because when I got there all the artwork still had his head on it! "

Meanwhile MovieBlogs at MTV are offering fans in Los Angeles a chance to see the movie a few weeks early. Click for details.

Schwartz not Directing X-MEN : FIRST CLASS

Back in November, Fox announced work on a Marvel mutant spinoff/reboot film 'X-Men: First Class' with 'Chuck' and 'Gossip Girl' creator Josh Schwartz developing the movie. At the time there seemed to be a possibility that Schwartz might also direct the film.

Now, Schwartz tells MTV News that he's not directing the movie. "I would be terrified to have the first thing I direct be a giant franchise movie."

Other than that, he man is mum on details of his storyline. He does mention that he considers the Dark Phoenix saga a high-point in the X-Men storyline, but admits that that's been done and he'll hve to mine the comics for another plot point.

"I’m not really allowed to say anything," he added. "They’re watching me as we speak. It’s exciting, it’s a huge honor and we’re just getting started."

THE FLASH Gets a Writer, Plus: Casting Buzz

Here's one that zipped past the radar: IESB.net has exclusively revealed the writer of the screenplay for the movie version of DC Comics' 'The Flash'. According to their sources 'Johnny Quest' scribe Dan Mazeau is working on the script for the film.

However, they could not get on-record confirmation of the assignment from producer Chuck Roven.

"You know, the problem... It’s not only a problem, I can’t really give you any information about The Flash. I can’t even confirm that Dan is on it. What I’m saying is, probably for about the last six months or so, the decision was made to really kind of, unless there was a DC character project that was ready to be green lit, to just not talk about it. So there’s nothing really that I can talk about at the moment," Roven said.

Now, Roven's comments make it seem like development of the film is still in the wee early hours. So any talk of casting is likely to be somewhat imaginary. Nevertheless, the fanicfully named website ThinkMcFlyThink is claiming that actor Scott Porter ('Friday Night Lights') is a contender for the role. The rumor comes from a "very-reliable source".

Supposedly Porter has been on Warner Bros. radare ever since he auditioned for the failed 'Justice League' feature film.

Toriyama Talks DRAGONBALL Movie

Anime News Network links to a recently posted promo video for the new 'Dragonball' movie, which is accompanied by written commentary from the creator of the manga, Akira Toriyama.

Readers of this site know well that the movie veers far from the source material and many fans are scratching their heads over the myriad of changes to the film. So, Toriyama's perspective on the film is interesting to say the least.

The manga-creator's comments were posted in Japanese, but translated by ANN. He said:

As the original creator, I had a feeling of "Huh?" upon seeing the screenplay and the character designs, but the director, all the actors, the staff, and the rest are nothing but "ultra" high-caliber people. Maybe the right way for me and all the fans to appreciate it is as a New Dragonball of a different dimension. Perhaps, this might become a great masterpiece of power! Hey, I look forward to it!!

I read on IMDB that the producers of WatchMen origianally wanted Ron Perlman to play the part of the Comedian, but Perlman couldn't do it because of scheduleing conflicts. And I think we are all aware that Zach Snyder wanted Gerard Butler to be the Comedian, but again Scheduling conflicks.

Ryans Reynolds would be great for the Flash, but I think Marvel has plans for him to do Deadpool.

Seriously, did I miss when they covered the Campbell up for Green Lantern news? If I missed it I apologize but I haven't seen nothing on it but there is stuff on Flash and Watchmen?

I think that's something that deserves to be brought up here. Variety reported that Martin Campbell is in talks to direct Green Lantern! I like both his Bond films and the first Zorro flick so I think that's a good choice, not my first but still it's very good. Certainly better than Berlanti.

Hmm. Evans for GL. He hadn't occurred to me as a possibility, but now that you mention it, I could see it. He was great as the Torch and played more serious in Sunshine. Don't know if he'd go for another costumed hero, though, after the FF movies. Who knows? Reynolds was in contention for Flash, and eventually played Deadpool, after doing Blade Trinity.

I agree Ryan Reynolds would be a good choice for The Flash but unfortunately hes heading for The Merc With A Mouth aka DeadPool ive been waiting for years to see a movie made. Chris Evans as Green Lantern highly doubt it, hes Human Torch Johnny Storm, and just because he did Push doesn't mean he might. Ryan Gosling been rumored to play Hal Jordan but who knows. As far as X-men goes they should continue the franchise bring back Cyclops and Jean why not? she came back in the comics all it takes is a good writer to pull it off. Also have more appearances of legendary x-men. For Dragonball ive seen the trailer looks ok to me but I lost interest in it I was expecting way more from it. Goku for one doesnt really look like goku, Master Roshi not bald no beard? no TurtleShell? who cares if its the realistic version stay true to the comics dang it, and then they wonder why certain films are not a success. Im waiting for StreetFighter Legend Of Chun Li another movie not original to the comics watch it flunk, whats next? have mega man look like a power ranger?.